Patrick Aigbokhan
The Police in Lokoja on Friday paraded suspects who were arrested for allegedly kidnapping three student of the Kogi State Polytechnic during a Christian fellowship programme on Wednesday.
The students were rescued by the police after spending three days with their abductors.
Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, the State’s Commissioner of Police, who confirmed the rescue of the students and the abductors’ arrest, said the students, Ayodele Ojo , Isaac Oaikhena and Sefiat Musa were rescued from the kidnappers’ hideout along Gadabiu-Kabba Junction Obajana road without paying the N20 million ransom demanded.
He said one suspect, Ibrahim Jibo, who was arrested on Thursday when he came to collect the ransom was already helping the police to arrest his accomplices.
One of the victims, Ayodele Ojo, said while narrating their ordeal, that they were kidnapped at the middle of a fellowship prayer at about 7.30 p.m. on Oct. 14, at the Osara campus.
He said that the kidnappers suddenly emerged and collected their mobile hand-held phones, money and other valuables and later abducted three of them.
While in captivity, he said, their abductors called their parents and relations to demand a N20 million ransom for their release but nothing was forthcoming.
Ojo said that the development angered the abductors who started maltreating them before they were rescued three days after.
The police commissioner however said that the abductors would not escape justice.